“Everything needs to be perfect, sir or you can kindly shove it all up your ass,” you paced around the room while chewing on your nails.
“Woah, calm down lady tiger,” Addison spoke as she entered your room as you got off your phone after your very intense call.
“It’s just, this is Ryland’s important day and everything needs to be perfect,” you sighed, “but these idiots cannot handle the simplest of instructions.” You finally sat down on your bed, your teeth still chewing the top of your nails.
“So I figured. Look, whatever you plan for Ryland will be perfect, hell, don’t plan anything for him and he’ll still be happy. All he wants is just for you to be there,” your friend sat down next to you and put her hand on your shoulder,
“Now take a deep breath and rest for a minute, you still have two days until D-day.”
“Hey, How’s it going?” Ryland questioned as he wrapped his arms around you, bringing you closer to him in a hug.
“Really good. What about you? Excited for your birthday?” Your voice came out muffled, with your mouth still pressed into his shoulder.
“Hmm, not much excited about this year really. It just seems so uneventful. You feel me?” He slightly tilted his head to the side and looked at you for an answer as you separated yourself from him.
“It’s your birthday, that is an event.” You shrugged and slowly moved your hand across his chest, “But I do feel you,” you turned your lips upwards into a smile as Ryland started to chuckle mumbling a lame to you.Looking up at his smiling face, you felt your heart pump out blood faster than before. His eyes almost sparkled when he was laughing and yours could only stare at him.
He then asked about your day at the office, which made you let out a long groan and started you off on a rant, complaining about your boss and office politics.
You turned in your bed for the fiftieth time. This time, you laid on your front with your head buried in your pillow. Eventually, you gave up on sleeping and instead started thinking about the upcoming birthday party of your best friend.Your lips immediately curled up. Ryland had been your friend for almost two years now and you couldn’t imagine what had been your life before him. Ever since you both met, you had been inseparable.
There had been times when he was dating someone, or you were in a relationship. But those relationships never seemed to last very long. At the end of the day, it would only be you two. You liked things this way- Ryland and you against the world.Fans did speculate about you two being together, but they were only rumours. Ryland was just your best friend and you preferred it this way.This had not been the first night where you had trouble sleeping. In fact for a while now, you were barely getting any sleep. You would keep turning around in bed for hours and sleep would still not find you. Ryland usually helped in these situations. He went to sleep very late every day and that allowed you to text him when you had trouble falling asleep. But you figured you didn’t want to worry him, so, most nights you kept to yourself.Lately, you just used this time to plan for Ryland’s birthday or to think about your conversations with him. He had been in your mind a lot these days, but then again he was a recurring subject of your thoughts.
“Y/n, wake up girl,” Addison leaned sideways from her desk, which was placed directly next to yours, to shake you.
You rose up from your sleep, startled, and looked around hoping no one saw you slacking off at work. You were one of the best employees in your office and you didn’t want to tarnish that reputation.
“Oh God, I am so sorry Addi. I can’t believe I fell asleep at work. This was so irresponsible of me.” You shook your head, disappointed in yourself.Addison gave you a pointed look,
“Were you busy planning for Ryland’s party still?” Your eyes widened a little, you felt as if you were caught red-handed stealing, “What if I was? Why is that a big deal?” “When have you ever spent weeks planning a party for me?” She looked at you, her eyes filled with mirth, a knowing smile on her face.Silence fell upon you as you got busy thinking about Addison’s last birthday and the ones before that. Her nails tapping against her desk providing the only noise between you two.
“I thought so,” her eyebrows were almost raised up to her hairline and her lips tightly pressed against each other, holding in a laugh.
“What are you implying? So what if I stress about Ryland’s birthdays?” You were genuinely confused with Addison’s still amused expression.
“Oh you sweet, innocent baby, you are in love.”
You decided to walk back home instead of taking a cab, you clearly had a lot to think about.
People passing by you on the street must have thought you were crazy; wide eyes, visibly shaking, muttering unintelligible sentences.Your eyes fell upon a bench in the park you walked past and you made your way there.
“Can’t be possible”, “She must be pranking me”, “Do I love him?” “What even is love?” were some of the things you remembered thinking. You took a deep breath and continued your journey home when you had gained back some of your bearings.You felt a light touch on your leg, you jumped to the side in fear of a small animal or a large insect, but looking down, it was just the flowers growing on the sidewalk. You turned around and realised the whole street was lined by an army of colourful flowers. You were so caught up in your head, you almost missed this pretty site. You were now more aware of your surroundings. Flowers on the sidewalk were not an uncommon sight, but there was something much more beautiful about them today than you had ever noticed. You sensed a giddiness building inside you, your face eased into a smile and you continued your way back home.
Your comforter immediately warmed you up, a sigh of comfort left your mouth and you settled deeper into your couch.A ping from your phone pulled you out of the film you were watching on Netflix.
“Ok you can now tell me what you’ve got me for my b’ day, I won’t tell anyone.” You could almost swear your heart skipped a beat. Shaking your head you replied,
“It’s for you dumbass.”
“Exactly, so can you tell me what it is? Please, I can’t take it anymore.”
“Ry, you do this every year, and every year you find out at your birthday. It’s just a day away. You can wait.” You waited for a response but you didn’t get any.Five minutes later Ryland replied with an angry face emoji. Drama queen.
That night again instead of sleep, you got Ryland, well, thoughts of Ryland. You were kind of getting worried about yourself. You didn’t care before, your thoughts were always somehow about your best friend. But, after today’s events, you started wondering may be constantly thinking about one person was not normal.
Your entire timeline as Ryland’s friend was being played in your head like a film. The first time you bumped into each other, your first outing together, the first time you called him your ‘best friend’, your first fight, the reconciliation after.The first time he slept over at your place, you shared a bed. The times you cuddled when you kissed his cheek, and he kissed your forehead. How much of this was normal for friends? The hugs were way too long to be considered platonic. But didn’t every person feel their heart rush in the presence of their friend? You shook your head, no that couldn’t be right.
Between all of the thoughts thrashing around in your head, you didn’t know when you fell asleep.The next morning you woke up with two realisations: one, you were in love with your best friend. Two, you didn’t buy the said best friend a birthday gift.
Ryland found early on in your friendship that you were a great gift giver. Ever since then, the one thing he looked forward to for his birthday every year was your gift. And you had never disappointed him, that was until now.
Even among the entire party planning, how could you forget the one thing that your best friend wanted the most? He wouldn’t give two cents about the party, but the gift was a big deal. You almost wanted to cry.You knew you were panicking way more than you should have.
But this was Ryland and you didn’t want to see the smile disappearing from his face when you told him that you forgot his gift. The thought of Ryland getting upset, and that too because of you was not something you were strong enough to deal with. You got dressed in appropriate clothes and went out for a walk, you figured maybe that would help clear your head.
Your feet led you to the same street where you saw the flowers yesterday. The various flowers still lining the pavement brought a sense of warmth to you. You didn’t even know why, but this flower army had already made a place in your heart.
It was still early in the morning and the birds were all chirping. For a moment it seemed, only you and the birds were awake. You found a new sense of appreciation for nature and all its beauty.
Lifting your head upwards, you noticed the sky looked bluer than you had ever seen it. It looked happy, alive even.
With the sky’s perceived joy in mind, you went back to your apartment, an idea forming in your brain. Thank god it was a Saturday.
It was finally Ryland’s birthday. You were at the venue, looking over for any last-minute issues. There seemed to be none, thankfully.The invited guests started arriving shortly. You had gotten used to Ryland’s circle of friends which included the majority of sway house and hype house and some others from his hometown.
Addison joined your side, “So, what are you going to do about it?”
“About what?”
“About your undying love for Ryland, of course,” your friend remarked most casually. You made sure no one heard her, “Jeez, could you maybe be a little more considerate about my feelings?”Addison didn’t reply, too busy making lovesick faces at the hors d'oeuvres being served.
“Go, just go,” You sighed, defeated, as your friend ran towards the table holding all the food.
“Hey,” you turned around in surprise but relaxed once you saw it was Ryland, “the party is really cool, thank you Y/n”.
“You know it’s not a problem Ry, Happy birthday,” you swallowed heavily, concentrating on keeping yourself calm. You brought your hands towards the front of his jacket, fixing it a little,
“You look good.” He gave you the trademark smirk. Your eyes focused on his left dimple and you suddenly had an urge to hold his cheek in your palm. But you refrained, that was definitely not normal.
“Where’s the gift Y/n?” He was desperate now, almost to the point of whining. You smiled at the thought of Ryland throwing a tantrum for you to give him his gift.
“Patience, my child,” you tapped his cheek lightly. Someone called your name from afar and you left Ryland to help out the person calling you.It was now late into the night, with only a few close friends remaining at the venue.
Everyone was heavily drunk and dancing to the music played by the equally drunk DJ.You hadn’t talked to Ryland after you left him.
You were busy the entire night interacting with Ryland’s guests. It was after several hours that you finally got to sit down and rest your high heel clad feet.
You heard Ryland calling your name, you searched for his voice only to find him standing in the middle of the dance floor. He brought both his hands forward in your direction as if a child asking to be picked up.
“Dance with me,” he mouthed.You, although, were more tired than you had ever felt, couldn’t say no. So, you joined him on the floor with a smile gracing your lips.He snaked his hand around your waist and pressed you against himself and offered his other hand for you to hold. You both gently swayed to the music, even though the song being played was much more fast-paced.
This was Ryland and you in your natural habitat, pretty much aloof from the outside world. Only this time, you finally understood the subtext.Your eyes stared deep into his honey brown ones. His eyes were like a drug and you were addicted to their high.
He detached his hand from yours and placed it on your waist along with his other one, pulling you into more of a hug, rather than a dancing position. You moved your hands onto the back of his neck and settled your head on his shoulder. You closed your eyes,
“I hate you so much”.
“Why?” His question was a whisper, not wanting to further break the now broken silence between you.
“You have taken over my life, I can’t eat, breathe or sleep without thoughts of you bursting into my head. I haven’t slept properly in two weeks.”
“Two weeks huh,” you slowly nod your head against his shoulder.
He moved his head back a little to observe your face, a few tears collecting just below your eyes,
“I love you too.”You shook slightly in silent laughter,
“I love you.”
“Now, where’s my gift?”
You gestured your head towards a big jar placed on a side table, decorated with pink ribbons on the outside and filled with small, coloured paper rolls up to the brim.
“A hand-written note for every day I have loved you,” you explained after noticing his confused face.He nodded in understanding, “Has anyone ever told you that you give the best presents, girlfriend?”
You shook your head, laughing, “I refuse to let you call me that, too cheesy.”
"Don't worry, I'll slowly wear you down, girlfriend."
He captured your lips into a searing kiss before you could utter out any insult, and you let him.
